Tuesday, March 17, 2009

And More on the "Iska"

The government released the names of the terrorists they are refusing to free. To my eyes, this is a smart move. Not only does this explain the government position, but it also forces those who would like to ignore the price of the deal to confront it. I find it hard to believe that someone in our government could actually be so sensible. Nonetheless, the proof is right there in front of me, in black and white. Someone with a brain is running around in there! Do not worry, I am sure that he or she will be tracked down and run out soon enough.

So, of course, I decided to do a bit of googling to find out if any of "my" terrorists were included in the list. Not the actual bomber, of course. The last I heard, she was still dead. Rather, her handlers. You see, of course the government is claiming that we will not release them, but (let us be real) at some point in the not-so-distant-future, the government will cave and do just that.

Well, they are not listed. Of course, this means nothing. They may be dead. They may be at large. They may be in the okay-to-trade list. They may have already been traded.

This means nothing at all.

This is what I want to know. We strike a deal. We make a trade. Six months later, one of the okay-to-trade guys manages to blow up a bus. What does Noam Shalit intend to say to the parents of the victims?

Has he thought of that at all? Okay, he is a parent--he cannot be expected to. But our government can. And it should.

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As an addendum, a frequent claim of those who support Hamas's stance (this is not the same as those who support bringing Gilad home at any price) is that "most of the prisoners are political prisoners who are guilty of no crime". Let us assume you are right. Fine. But these guys, the guys on the list, are not. These are the guys who set up attacks like the one I went through, at Machane Yehuda. How can you justify this? And will you continue to justify it when you or one of your children is caught in a suicide bombing?

8 comments:

I don't have an answer but I don't think it's that clear cut. It's a very complicated Moral dilemma. And one of the highest values of the country and the army is "not leaving casualties (or bodies or parts of) in the field". The sense of security that you won't be left in the street or field to die. …An unreturned soldier is the same. So the issue is where you draw the line and that can be debated, and is. It's not just what the life of Gilad is worth (which in itself is a great deal) but also the question of national values.

P.S. I don't think it's the Shalit's need to think be concerted with anything else other than getting Gilad back. That's their duty. It's the role of the government to think of the greater good and see the whole picture.

This whole Gilad Shalit thing is insane for many reasons - moral, strategic and political.Luckily not all Israelis are as stupid, dense and lacking in morals as the ones clamoring for Shalit's release at any price.The falsani, coffee shop Israelis are just a pathetic, spineless, hypocritic bunch of losers.

If I were a hamas prisoner I'd be feeling rather depressed at the moment - I'm worth about one-third of one per-cent of a little Jewish boy with glasses, that's how much they value me back home in Hamas-land?Psych them out' anyone?

ps Anonymous, don't you have a name to go with your insulting comments?

A question from an American that has trouble ferreting out info on Gilad (the US news services only mention Hamas when the IDF whacks a couple and most American sheeple, if they even reconize the name, think Hamas are "the boys next door" and "the good guys" due to the dimitude of the MSM) unless I remember to stop past a Israeli blog or jpost.com:

What evidence has Hamas provided that Gilad is in condition to be released? And when was this evidence produced?

New to My Shrapnel? Start at the beginning:

About Me

Message from the Bombing Victim Muppet

I am, of course, neither sad, nor heroic nor particularly victimized. What I am is an "ordinary Joe" who was seriously injured six years ago in a suicide bombing while waiting for a bus at the Machane Yehuda open air market in Jerusalem.

Ever since I learned how to write, writing has served as a sort of therapy for me. In the months and years after the bombing, I did an enormous amount of writing. What I was thinking. What I was feeling. How the world reacted to me. How my bombed-out self reacted to the world. Some of the articles were sent to friends and relatives via email lists. Many more of them just sat on my computer. I always meant to do something with them.

Of course, I never got around to it.

This year, I promised myself that I would, at last do something. And since blogging is the best way to do something without having to do all that much (no publishers, no rejections, no work apart from editing), I decided that this was the way to go.

Please comment. I am putting these out so that people will read them. Let me know that you are reading.